Can Arie Be Banned From Minnesota?

Local Enemy Arie Luyendyk Jr. May Be Banned From Becca's Home State

In the small realm of reality television fans, Arie Luyendyk, Jr. is Public Enemy No. 1. But don't worry, someone's on the case. Minnesota representative Drew Christensen tweeted Monday night that he would draft a bill banning Luyendyk from the state of Minnesota if the original tweet got 1,000 retweets. As of publication, it has nearly 11,600. As of Wednesday, Christensen had, in fact drafted the bill. Christensen also invited Kufrin to the State of the State address, which takes place next week.

The bill requests "adopting a right to live free from the presence of Arie Luyendyk, Jr." Luyendyk unceremoniously dumped Becca Kufrin during a segment that aired Monday night's episode of The Bachelor. Luyendyk then skipped happily to his runner-up, Lauren Burnham. Kufrin won the popular vote, though: Fans were irate that she'd been dumped so cruelly on television that they started Venmo-ing her cash for breakup drinks. The same day, 16 — yup, 16 — billboards went up in Minnesota and Los Angeles deriding Luyendyk for his actions.

"Arie... Not okay. Just leave. —Everyone" one billboard read. By Wednesday, these billboards reached Times Square. Something tells me Luyendyk wasn't planning on going to Minnesota anytime soon, but now there's certainly impetus for him to stay away.

Not that this will actually happen — what are the chances the Minnesota state Senate also hates Arie Luyendyk, Jr.? In an interview with TwinCities.com, Christensen himself admitted that the bill won't pass.

"I feel bad for the people who are taking it so seriously,” he said, “as opposed to a fun, tongue-in-cheek thing."

He continued, "I don't think [the bill] will pass...I don’t think it would be actually be constitutional for that to happen.” He's right. In most states, punitive banishment is itself unlawful, although the state of Maryland allows it in the case of corruption. In fact, according to a 2013 explainer from Slate, the state constitution requires banishment as a penalty for corruption. But Maryland is the exception. Plus, in cases where banishment does come up, the crimes are egregious — in 2000, a Kentucky judge attempted to kick a domestic abuser out of the state, and even then they weren't successful. Breaking up with a girl on television is cruel, but it's not cruel enough to keep Luyendyk out of Minnesota.

When he's not pandering to Bachelor fans, Christensen is advocating for a "mental health crisis center" as a way to combat gun violence. In his Twitter mentions, his constituents are asking him to draft a bill limiting access to guns. Christensen should use this recent publicity bump to advocate for things more important than Arie Luyendyk Jr.'s banishment. Gun control would be a great start.